Good afternoon, folks. R. Shawn McBride with you here live, talking to you about organizational development. I’ve been called upon lately to consult with people, work with people, talk to them about engaging with their employees, right? Leadership, how you lead an organization without seeming bossy, how you do some things. I wanted to talk today about something we’ve seen with organizational development, something we use internally, it’s been working great with our team, getting our people engaged, doing more, but other people have been using it as well.

The question is, have you talked to your employees? Have you really talked to your employees about what their hopes and dreams are, and what their career aspirations are? This is a magnificent opportunity for employers that so many people are leaving on the table. Gallup tells us that 32%, 33% of employees are engaged in the US. The remaining portion of the employees are not engaged. That is a significant portion of the US workforce that’s not engaged, two-thirds.

We need engagement. How do you get somebody engaged? Well you need to do what’s in their best interest, right? People get engaged in things they like. They get engaged in sports. They get engaged in movies. They engage in watching sitcoms. They get engaged in things they like, and at the workplace, they get engaged with things they enjoy doing. So how do you get employees to do more, and how do you get them to do what is good for both them and the organization? It’s all about engagement.

We talk about The 3 Laws of Empowerment for High-Growth Companies. Building a career and life that each employee loves and how it’s better for the organization. We need to bring these principles home. How do we get our employees engaged? We want to talk to them about their life plans, and these need to be very honest and frank discussions. They cannot be driven by the employer’s interests. They need to be driven by the employee’s interests. What does the employee want to do? Where do they want their career to go? It needs to be OK to be something outside the organization. That is critical.

We need to be OK with the employee picking whichever direction they want. Then we want to be teammates. We want to work together as an organization to get the things done that need to be done in the business. Service the customers, get the products out the door, do the things we do, but also allow that employee to develop towards what they want to be.

That’s going to get engagement, because they’re going to see the big picture. They’re going to see where they’re going. The employee’s going to be engaged, but then the employer’s also going to benefit because they’re going to have employees that are working hard to execute on their dreams, which happen to then help the employer. So these are things we can start doing, and we can do more of it.

If this is something you need in your organization, I would love to come in and talk to you about The 3 Laws of Empowerment, or if you know other organizations that need it, we can empower employees to have lives that they love. So let us know how we can help you and your team do more of what you want to do. Drop me a note, let me know what issues you’re dealing with and how I can help you make your organizations work better, and like this public page, the R. Shawn McBride fan page, so we can bring you more great content.

This posting is intended to be a tool to familiarize readers with some of the issues discussed herein. This is not meant to be a comprehensive discussion and additional details should be discussed with your attorneys, accountants, consultants, bankers and other business planners who can provide advice for your circumstances. Each case is unique. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. This article should not be treated as legal advice to any person or entity. Freeimages.com/photographer domiwo.

About the Author

R. Shawn McBride is the Chief Innovation Officer at McBride For Business, LLC. His signature keynote, The 3 Laws of Empowerment (www.rshawnmcbridelive.com/3laws), gives audiences an entertaining look at how they can prepare, plan and protect themselves. You can reach R. Shawn McBride at info@mcbrideforbusiness.com or (214) 418-0258.